


Working Relationship

by badpriestess



Category: Bartimaeus - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Almost Romance, Drabbles, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-04
Updated: 2013-01-04
Packaged: 2017-11-23 14:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/623315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badpriestess/pseuds/badpriestess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five drabbles featuring Nathaniel and Piper, with some vague romantic undertones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Working Relationship

**Author's Note:**

> (Another of my older stories from FF.Net.)
> 
> I wanted to experiment with drabbles, and I’ve always had this inexplicable soft spot for Nathaniel/Piper, even though it would be a one-sided attraction at best on Piper’s end. Still, Nathaniel seems fond of her, and so here are five 100-word pieces about their…we’ll call it mutual regard. Oh, and I call Nathaniel “John” throughout, since I imagine these pieces taking place shortly before Ptolemy’s Gate, when he’s still entrenched in his bastard magician persona. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them.

**I. Esteem**

Piper approaches her superior’s study nervously; Mr. Mandrake has recently installed a sentry, and its hideous manifestations frighten her.  So she is surprised to see it’s a standard Gorgon head today, of the sort you might find on a standard doorknocker.

“Yeah,” it says when she remarks on the adjustment.  “The boss Stippled me for scaring you yesterday.  Guess he likes you.”

Piper blushes, although such gallantry is typical; Mr. Mandrake always takes particular care to set her at ease in his house.  He rarely has visitors, and sometimes she flatters herself that he wants to ensure she comes back.

 

**II. Order**

John doesn’t realize how intently  he’s staring at Piper’s pale, efficient hands until, noticing his attention, she fumbles the pages she’s sorting.  He quickly shifts his eyes to his draft of the next “War Heroes” pamphlet, but the words on the page are suddenly a hopeless jumble.  The fact is, he likes Piper’s hands, especially when they’re putting things in order.  What he wouldn’t give to pour out his troubles and responsibilities on the desk and watch her shuffle and rearrange them into a manageable pattern, like a card trick. He closes his eyes; he wouldn’t know how to ask.

**III. Envy**

Piper doesn’t drink at work functions as a rule, but the stifling heat of the garden party and, more than that, the sight of Jane Farrar leaning in toward Mr. Mandrake conspiratorially has her reaching for a glass of no doubt spiked punch. 

Ffoukes is at Piper’s side, talking at her, but her eyes are locked on Farrar and her shapely, perfectly glossed mouth forming the name “John.”  Piper can’t imagine ever referring to her boss by his first name; once, ludicrously, she had tried to say it aloud at home, and her tongue had caught hopelessly on the J.

**IV. Falter**

Piper walks into the foyer as Mr. Mandrake is jogging down the stairs, looking thoroughly disheveled.  The unprecedented sight is enough to bring her up short, and her superior also falters, one foot suspended comically over the next step.  She stammers out an apology, but her eyes rove of their own accord from the tuft of hair sticking up over one ear to his dangling shirttail to the single undone cuff on his left sleeve.

She ends up fastening that cufflink, her heart stuttering like the magician’s pulse she can feel, just barely, under the warm skin of his wrist.

**V. Trust**

 “Do you remember your real name?” she asks during a rare idle moment; they’ve been exchanging small talk about their apprenticeships.  The unexpected, charged question sends a jolt down John’s spine, and although he opens his mouth, no words come out.  Her face reddens, and she looks intently down at the desktop.

“I’m sorry – I don’t know why I…”

“Yes,” he answers, and her wide blue eyes meet his.  In the beat of silence that follows, the moment feels as if it’s spun from the thinnest glass. 

“So do I,” Piper admits, softly, and something crystallizes between them, unseen.


End file.
